ABBA

Trumpeter from Ayrshire, Scotland, who attended the Douglas Academy and University of Surrey. After graduation, he worked as a clerk for the Guildford Cathedral Choir and then took a job with Orchestre Symphonique d’Europe. He joined the Philharmonia Orchestra of London in 1996.

Other groups with whom he has worked include the Armenian Chamber Orchestra, the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Mozart Players, the London Sinfonietta, the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, the Norwegian Radio Orchestra, and the University of Surrey Orchestra.

On 26^th November 1998, he was a guest soloist of the University of Surrey Orchestra, interpreting Henri Tomasi’s “Trumpet Concerto”.

He and fellow trumpeter Mark David and organist Andrew Millington were in the Guildford Cathedral in July 1999 to record The trumpet shall be heard on high.

On 16^th March 2002, the Philharmonia offered up Gustav Mahler’s “Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor” and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s overture to The Abduction from the Seraglio and “Violin Concerto No. 4 in D, K. 218”, with soloist Isabelle van Keulen.

They teamed up with the Ladies of the London Philharmonic Choir, the Tiffin Boys Choir and Catherine Wyn-Rogers at DeMontfort Hall in Leicester on 17^th January 2003.

On 22^nd April 2005, they presented a wall-to-wall Peter Maxwell Davies concert with sopranos Claire Booth and Lucy Shelton that included “Antechrist”, the U.K. premiere of “De Assumtione Beatae Maria Virginis”, “Blind Man’s Buff”, and “Revelation and Fall”.

Alistair was one of the guest soloists with the Aremian Philharmonic Orchestra at Aram Khachaturian Concert Hall on 8^th October 2005. The all-Alexander Arutiunian program comprised “Concert Waltz”, “Piano Concertino”, and “Theme and Variations for Trumpet and Orchestra.

On 11^th April 2006, the Philharmonia appeared at Queen Elizabeth Hall in a concert of Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Leonore Overture No. 2” and “Piano Concerto No. 4 in G, Op. 58”, with soloist Pierre-Laurent Aimard, and Dmitri Shostakovich’s “Symphony No. 1 in F minor, Op. 10”.

They performed Franz Joseph Haydn’s “Symphony No. 7 in C” (“Le midi”), Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder”, with mezzo-soprano Monica Groop, and Richard Strauss’s “Metamorphosen” on 14^th December 2006.

On 28^th September 2008, they took the stage at Royal Festival Hall in London, where they opened with the aforementioned “Leonore Overture” and closed with Hector Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique”.

They entertained at Queen’s Theatre in Barnstaple on 8^th November 2008 with pianist Min-Jung Kym in a recital that included works by Beethoven, Antonin Dvorak, and Felix Mendelssohn.

On 3^rd November 2009, they unveiled their “Be the Orchestra” interactive exhibit at the Bargehouse in South Bank, London.

Composer, conductor and pianist George Benjamin celebrated his fiftieth birthday with the London Sinfonietta at Queen Elizabeth Hall on 9^th February 2010. The program comprised “At First Light”, “A Mind of Winter”, “Palimpsests”, “Piano Figures”, and “Viola, Viola”.

On 17^th March 2010, the London Sinfonietta joined forces with soprano Barbara Hannigan and bass-baritone Stephen Richardson for the U.K. premiere of Richard Ayres’ “In the Alps” and the London premiere of Gerald Barry’s “Beethoven”. “In the Alps” required Alistair to don Lederhosen as he and his trumpet played one of the characters in the mini-opera.

He was back in formal attire on 25^th March 2010 when the Philharmonia welcomed violinist Joshua Bell to a double-header of Beethoven that included his “Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in D major, Op. 61” and “Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55” (“Eroica”).

On 13^th June 2010, he was one of the featured soloists as the Philharmonia played music by Alan Hovhaness and Ralph Vaughan Williams. The concert consisted of Hovhaness’s “Fantasy on Japanese Wood Prints for Xylophone and Orchestra, Op. 211”, “Prayer for St. Gregory for Trumpet & String Orchestra, Op. 62b” and “Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam”, and Vaughan Williams’ “Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis” and “Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for String Orchestra & Harp”.

The London Sinfonietta performed Thomas Ades’ “Living Toys” in the Palace of Arts in Budapest, Hungary, on 29^th January 2011.

On 17^th August 2011, the Philharmonia appeared on BBC Proms with soloist Lisa Batiashvili in a concert of Shostakovich’s “The Age of Gold – Suite, Op. 22a” and “Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, Op. 77”, and Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s “Francesca da Rimini, Op. 32”.

In the field of music education, Alistair has taught at the Royal College of Music and the University of Surrey.

Recordings on which he appears include Hodie Gloriosa: On this Glorious Day, Louis Andriessen: Anais Nin; De Staat, and the soundtrack from Land of the Blind. He also appeared as himself on the documentary, The Passions of Vaughan Williams, which won the Prix d’Argent in 2009.

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